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Monday, July 8, 2013

News from Deborah Weir - "Banned"

BANNED!!

In early 2013 I saw an
announcement requesting entries for art quilts in an exhibit entitled Light,
Hope, Opportunity sponsored by Quilt for Change, a group out of Rhode
Island.Rules were straight-forward: 24”
square art quilt on the theme of how insufficient energy sources impact women
worldwide.I knew at once that I wanted
to do a piece on the Mexican women working at American maquilladoras in Juarez,
Mexico.These unskilled, minimally paid,
mostly young women make products for the American consumer market in
well-equipped modern factories.Hundreds
of them, upon leaving work, walk home, often after dark, and have been raped and
murdered. There is no safe transit for them, and much of the city is not
properly illuminated: no light, little hope, trifling opportunity.

Though I have done a lot of artwork on global themes – mostly focusing
on water issues – this one especially
touched me.I carefully thought through
and designed a piece I hoped would tell
the story in 576 square inches; I named it Juarez.Pink is a color I rarely use but here I dyed the background fabric pink and sprayed
it in a splatter pattern with red ink
to indicate both female and blood – pretty common symbols.I chose to build a cross from some Indian metal chain.Mexico is a country in which every city and town has a Catholic
church and the cruciform symbol is as richly complex as one can be; it runs the gamut of love, motherhood,
protection to deceit, violence, male
dominance and material wealth.And MUCH
else.I am not personally a member of a religion which
employs the cross in its symbology, but I am well aware of its pervasive and varied connotations.

Onto the pink ground I printed a
schematic map of Juarez where it meets the US border, applied the metal
cruciform then richly hand embroidered dimensionally across the underlying
materials, enhancing and quite graphically depicting the blood and emotional
loss which represent the theme of the piece – lack of light and transit in
Juarez allowing for horrific crimes against these women.The artwork is intentionally disturbing,
which is appropriate to the theme.

Quilt for Change requested images
of the work in progress which I sent, and I was eventually delighted to learn
that Juarez had been accepted into their traveling exhibition (2013-2015).Off the show went in June, 2013, to its grand
opening at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations’ headquarter in Geneva,
Switzerland.What a thrill!Beautiful building, thousands of people
walking through, nice display panels but . . . what’s this???My work was tossed by the UN Cultural
Commission at the last minute.While
pictures of bright-eyed Moslem girls in headscarves were fine, a cross on a
piece about Mexico is no go.

I realize I’m in
GREAT company:James Joyce, Mark Twain,
Marc Chagall, John Steinbeck, Ai Weiwei, etc., etc., all had work banned.But shame on the UN, an organization I’ve had
nothing but respect for up to this point, for shying away from unpleasant
truth.Light?Hope?Definitely NO opportunity.

The show will
travel to various venues in the US, and I’ve been told Juarez will take its
rightful place in the exhibits when it does.Will it disturb some viewers?I
certainly hope so!

Congratulations on getting banned! Clear demonstration that the piece is successful in jolting willful disregard of this ongoing, horrible situation. You've upset someone, but it is nothing compared to the reality in Juarez.

Studio Art Quilt Associates

SAQA is a non-profit international organization whose mission is to promote the art quilt through education, exhibitions, professional development and documentation. Founded in 1989 by an initial group of 50 artists, SAQA now boasts of over 2900 members: artists, teachers, collectors, gallery owners, museum curators and corporate sponsors.